THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY of Kent, you will spot the conical roofs of oast houses in which the hops used to flavour beer are dried. Many of these curious looking buildings are no longer used for their original purpose. Many of them have been converted into picturesque residences. In late October 2025, we booked a table to eat lunch at the Dovecote Inn, a pub near Capel, which is not far from Tonbridge in Kent. We were advised that it might be noisy because there would be a beer festival going on when we were there.

The event was “The Dovecote Green Hop Festival”. Green hops, sometimes called ‘wet hops’, are hops harvested from the vines (the ‘bines’), and used to make beer within 24 hours of having been picked. The beers produced with these fresh, rather than dried, hops, have their own distinctive flavours, which are fresher and more vibrant than other beers. This is because the green hops contain ingredients that are lost when hops are dried out. However, to produce beer with the freshly picked hops, a far greater quantity of hops is required than when using the dried ones. I tried one of the green hop bitters, and it tasted wonderful.

The Dovecote Inn turned out to be a delightful, small late eighteenth century establishment. Its landlord was extremely friendly, as were his team of staff. Although we had to wait a long time for our food, it was well-worth waiting for. As for the noisy festival about which we had been warned, it did not seemed to have taken off by the time we ate there early on a Friday afternoon. We looked around at the customers and amongst about twenty people, only four of them were drinking beer. I suspect that had we stayed until the evening, the beer consumption level would have increased by then.

On the way out, I paid a visit to the men’s toilet. This was a sight to be seen. The walls of this part of the pub are covered with an eye-catching wallpaper whose design is a dazzling collage of American comic covers (“Bat Man”, “Wonderwoman”, Superman”, etc.).

Only a few miles from Tonbridge, The Dovecote Inn is well worth a visit, but if you plan on eating there, leave plenty of time.